The 20 Best Meals From Game of Thrones

Just in time for the premiere of the third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones—which airs this Sunday, March 31—we bring to you a list of epic, uncharted food-nerd proportion! A guide to food taken straight from the pages of George R.R. Martin’s white-hot tome.

After extensive research, we can comfortable say that no one can ever accuse Martin for a lack of imagery. From a fictional city’s streets to the steaming carcass of a horse, his readers want for no description. And anyone who’s read at least two pages of A Song of Ice and Fire or has just seen a commercial for HBO’s Game of Thrones knows that Martin holds three types of descriptions closest to his heart—gore, sex, and food. And while the TV show showcases some of the writer’s affections for culinary delights, the episodes can’t compare with the feasts Martin has penned for what we can only assume is another form of character building. For some like Cersei and Tyrion Lannister, food is power; It’s indicative of their entitled lifestyle, at times wasteful (Cersei) and at others a method of manipulation (Tyrion). For others, it’s more about what they’re not eating (we’re looking at you Ned, Catelyn, Sansa, and Arya). But one thing’s for certain—everybody has a favorite. Even Daenerys’ dragons prefer their snakemeat charred over a brazier instead of raw.

Martin’s “regional favorites” are so amply described in the series, that there’s even an Official Game of Thrones Cookbook with recipes and instructions on throwing a dinner party Winterfell-style. With that, we’ve created our own round-up of the most telling eats, from Khal Drogo’s outdoor horse meat roasts to Sansa’s love of lemon cakes. Using the books to catch up with where the TV show is thus far, we’ve avoided any spoilers. Though we can’t promise that these menus will make you particularly hungry, we do know you’ll never look at these characters the same way again.

Here, we break down the 20 most impactful food moments from the first two books of the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series. Let the debauchery commence before winter returns for season three this weekend.

Daenerys and Khal Drogo's Wedding Feast in Pentos

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Horseflesh roasted with honey and peppers, fermented mare's milk, Illyrio's fine wines, "steaming joints of meat and thick black sausages and Dothraki blood pies, (p. 83)" fruits and sweetgrass stews and delicate pastries made in Pentos.
What it means: Who knew that an ancient Dothraki feast item would have so much in common with our horse meat headlines of today? Throughout the books, the food and customs Martin chooses indicates the Dothraki culture is based off a mix of Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and even Mongolian sets. At this particular feast, Dany eats almost nothing because it is her wedding night. She is also 13 years-old and marrying a fully grown ox-sized man, so it’s understandable. But later in the book and TV show, she'll start to make the khaleesi role more her own by eating both the roasted meats and daintier foods like dates and wine when she travels to other cities.

The Starks' Feast Welcoming Robert Baratheon

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Honeyed-roasted chicken, roast onions dripping with brown gravy, bread trenchers, lots of wine.
What it means: This is the first time we meet the gluttonous King Robert, as he visits lifelong friend Ned Stark and his family at their northern home in Winterfell. The food isn't in the usual excess of royal feasts, but it's enough for Robert to get sufficiently black-out drunk and stuffed. It’s also enough for the Starks to worry that they might not fit in at King's Landing as Ned tries to decide whether he should become Robert's Number Two man in the capital city. This is also the feast where the bastard Jon Snow and the imp Tyrion Lannister bond over being outcasts, for what it's worth.

Catelyn's Breakfast at Bran's Bedside

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Hot bread, butter, honey and blackberry preserves, a rasher of bacon and a soft-boiled egg, a wedge of cheese, a pot of mint tea.
What it means: This is the beginning of a series of meals that Catelyn receives and doesn't touch. This particular time, she's grief stricken and worried that her eight year-old son Bran—who's been pushed out of a tower window by the Lannisters—won't regain consciousness. Throughout the rest of her chapters, whether it is at her girlhood home in Riverrun or on the treaty trail at Renly Baratheon's camp, Catelyn tends to focus on her grief and anxiety for her family rather than anything her servants place in front of her.

Daenerys and the Horse Heart

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Daenerys eats a raw horse heart in front of the entire Khal.
What it means: According to Dothraki legend, if she can eat the entirety of the raw horse heart, she will give birth to a healthy son. She manages to eat the entire thing (for once this is probably more visceral on TV than in the book) and keep it down afterward. But as we all know, she does NOT give birth to anything resembling a healthy son.

Dinner with Ned, Arya, and Sansa in King's Landing

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Thick sweet soup made with pumpkins, platters of ribs, roasted in a crust of garlic and herbs.
What it means: On this night, as Ned ponders what has happened to his predecessor Jon Arryn, he arrives late and leaves early. In Winterfell, he used to eat with his men every night, listening to their news and problems. The fact that he's leaving shows he's restless and ill-fitted for King's Landing's landscape of cut-throat manipulation.

Jon Snow's Life on the Wall

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: When Jon and Sam are not eating mutton stew with heels of black bread, they're eating the occasional pork pie. Sometimes Jon gets an extra portion when a family member is notoriously imprisoned.
What it means: As we know from the book and Kit Harrington's pout on the TV show, Jon Snow is as pensive as Catelyn Stark, even though she resents him for being her husband's bastard. He gladly retreats to a life on the wall, and while he doesn't necessarily love the food, he doesn't eat more out of anxiety for his crippled brother Bran and his father's imprisonment (and subsequent death). As Lord Mormont's steward, he handles lots of food. He's just more interested in brooding. And pouting.

Tyrion's return to Winterfell and Bran with Yoren

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Suckling pig, pigeon pie, turnips soaking in butter, and honeycombs.
What it means: Tyrion returns from his trek to the Wall to visit with Robb (who hates him) and share some useful designs for getting the now-conscious Bran up on a horse in a leg brace. Winterfell has simple food, but for feasts, they know how to do it right. And feasts are what follows the luxurious Tyrion Lannister everywhere he goes.

Ned's Meeting with Pycelle in King's Landing

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Pycelle offers Ned dates and iced milk with honey (wine doesn't agree with him, he says).
What it means: Sissy men flourish in King's Landing, where men wear silks and powder themselves and no one bats an eye. The iced milk is over-sweet to Ned's taste as he is a hard Northman concerned with other things. This serves to point out first that Ned is severely ill-fitted for an indoor job as the king's Hand, and secondly that Pycelle is playing the weak old man sensitive to wine. Later, when Tyrion is the acting Hand, he will uncover the truth, that Pycelle is really a two-faced instrument for the Queen who whores and drinks in his spare time.

Ser Rodrik and Catelyn's Dinner at the Inn at the Crossroads

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: For dinner, the communal meal is skewers of red meat in a trencher. When Tyrion arrives, he flashes a coin and orders a double portion of something else, "I'll take a roast fowl—chicken, duck, pigeon, it makes no matter" (p. 245). Oh, and of course her finest wine.
What it means: Neither Tyrion nor Catelyn wind up getting to eat their food, but his orders (and her lack-thereof) say a lot about their expectations from the people around them. Catelyn—a well-respected Lady of the North—is traveling in disguise and more than happy to eat in the company of her fellow travelers and asks no trouble of her hostess. As usual, Tyrion draws attention to himself and his party with his lavish orders—something he'll learn not to do in the future.

The Hand's Tourney Feast

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Aurochs that roasted for hours, "Kitchen boys basted them with butter and herbs until the meat crackled and spit” (p. 251); tables piled high with sweetgrass, strawberries, and fresh-baked bread. A thick soup of barley and venison; salads of sweetgrass and spinach and plums sprinkled with crushed nuts; snails in honey and garlic; sweetbreads and pigeon pie, baked apples fragrant with cinnamon, and lemon cakes frosted in sugar.
What it means: On the tourney night—a.k.a. the last time Sansa likes Joffrey ever—we get perhaps the best look into the royal diet thus far. This is basically the El Bulli of Westeros. Sansa is too drunk on both the night and Joffrey himself to remember eating, although she does wind up so full she can't eat one more lemon cake. Ah, shoot. On the other hand, Arya better enjoy it. Pretty soon she'll be surviving on acorn paste and rats she kills herself in Flea Bottom and straps to her belt.

Eating Horse on the Trail North to the Eyrie

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Catelyn's camp kills Tyrion's horse to feed the traveling group.
What it means: Tryion explodes "Do you take me for a Dothraki?" in what we assume is a very diva voice, exposing his hesitation at departing from his highborn meals (p. 273).

Viserys' Non-Horse Meal in Vaes Dothrak

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Haunch of goat roasted with sweetgrass and fire pods basted with honey; melons, pomegranates, plums and "some queer Eastern fruit Dany did not know" (p. 329)
What it means: Dany is learning to like Dothraki fare at the hands of her maids; Viserys is still a dick, demanding no more horse meat (what is he, American?!). Pretty soon, though, it won't matter.

Jon and Sam's oath day at the Wall

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: The boys get food from the Master Commander's own table: A rack of lamb baked in a crust of garlic and herbs, garnished with sprigs of mint and surrounded by mashed yellow turnips "swimming in butter"; salads of spinach and chickpeas and turnip greens; bowls of iced blueberries and sweet cream.
What it means: For Jon, this is the first time he's featured as a seat of honor at a feast, and it happens to be at the Wall with his new family instead of under Catelyn Stark's watch.

Roasted Goat on the Highroad

Book:A Game of ThronesMenu: Tyrion is tired of beans in jail, and he wants something better. Bronn kills a goat to roast.
What it means: Are you sensing a pattern? Little does the pair know, the goat belongs to a bunch of mountain clansmen, and they attack Tyrion and Bronn in the night. That is, until Tyrion's sharp tongue persuades them to do no such thing and rather accompany them to his father's camp and become his personal army for like a whole year.

King's Landing Boar Feast

Book:A Clash of KingsMenu: The boar that killed King Robert was cooked with mushrooms and apples and "it tasted like triumph" (p. 45)
What it means: Cersei is a very vindictive woman. Very very vindictive. This should be clear from the first 30 seconds of seeing her on TV. But perhaps we didn't know she was a sociopath just yet? Anyway, since she sleeps with her twin brother instead of her drunk husband, she really has no more need of him since she is basically in control of everyone in King's Landing. She has his squire and her cousin Lancel—whom she's also banging—give her husband fortified wine so he's drunk and a much easier target for a boar the gore during a hunt. After Robert dies, she has a feast to cook and eat the boar! Such a cold, cold woman.

Tyrion's Dinner with Janos Slynt

Book:A Clash of KingsMenu: Besides wine, wine, and more wine, the pair sup on oxtail soup; summer greens tossed with pecans, grapes, red fennel, and crumbled cheese; hot crab pie; spiced squash; and quails drowned in butter. Each course obviously also comes with its own wine.
What it means: Of course the first thing Tyrion did when he assumed the role of Hand was hire the best cook into his service. This is somewhat of a passive aggressive move on Tyrion's part, slyly coaxing a larger man into drunkenness and a food coma, but it's how he operates and is ultimately a power move. He uses that dinner to effectively fire Slynt and confiscate his properties so he can install his own head of the City Watch afterward.

Renly's Peach-Nibbling During Treatise

Book:A Clash of KingsMenu: A popular, overconfident Renly shows up to negotiations with his older brother Stannis eating a peach.
What it means: Stannis considers Renly weak, although we never see what the strength of Renly's popularity meant in battle. After the incident with the war talks (and the peach), Stannis orders Renly's supernatural death before the battle is set to begin, and he seems to still be trying to justify that murder when he says "He came here with his banners and his peaches, to his doom ... and it was well for me he did" (p. 464). Read as: How dare he eat a peach in my presence?! He deserves to be murdered by a death shadow that this red-wearing mistress of mine gave birth to in a cave, immediately!

Bran's State Dinner

Book:A Clash of KingsMenu: Great joints of aurochs roasted with leeks; venison pies chunky with carrots, bacon, and mushrooms; mutton chops sauced in honey and cloves; savory duck; peppered boar; goose; skewers of pigeon and capon, beef and barley stew, cold fruit soup. Lord Wyman brought 20 casks of fish from White Harbor packed in salt and seaweed: whitefish, winkles, crabs, mussels, clams, herring, cod, salmon, lobster, and lampreys. There was black bread and honeycakes and oaten biscuits; there were turnips and peas and beets, beans and squash and huge red onions; there were baked apples and berry tarts and pears poached in strongwine. Wheels of white cheese were set at every table, above and below the salt, and flagons of hot spice wine and chilled autumn ale were passed up and down the tables.
What it means: This isn't a feast especially indicative of Winterfell's cuisine, as Martin notes, but it is telling of Bran's character. He's the lordling in Winterfell while Robb is away, and it is his tiresome duty as child to entertain northern Lords who bring fealty or disputes to Winterfell's table. Since he's all of about 9 years old at this point, his mulled wine—that's been sweetened with honey, cinnamon, and cloves—makes his head swim. By the fourth course, little Bran is full, and though the servants come to his seat first with the "choicest portions," he waves them away and bestows them to other guests on the dais and elsewhere in the hall, as any good lordling would do. To the Frey wardens he doesn't like though, he sends beets and turnips. Because no matter how diligent and dedicated to Winterfell he might be—he's still nine.

Theon's Welcome Home Feast in Pyke

Book:A Clash of KingsMenu:There is salted fish and bread trenchers filled with creamy fish stew that almost makes Theon retch. His sister Asha cleaves it in two with an axe demonstration that spills his stew everywhere. In Martin's words: "The feast was a meager enough thing, a succession of fish stews, black bread, and spiceless goat. The tastiest thing Theon found to eat was an onion pie" (p. 295).
What it means: Theon winds up making it through the unfriendly feast on wine alone. Pyke and the Iron Islands are not known for hospitality and good food, but just the opposite. This first banquet back home shoves Theon's decision to remain loyal to his father and subvert his kind wardens back into his face and sends him into a long-lasting haze of uncertainty and self-doubt in the events to come.

Queen Cersei's War Feast

Book:A Clash of KingsMenu: Broth; a salad of apples, nuts and raisins; crabclaw pies; mutton roasted with leeks and carrots, served in trenchers of hollowed bread; and goat cheese served with baked apples. Oh and lots of wine for Cersei.
What it means: When other leaders might forsake a fancy feast to be more involved in the goings on of the city's siege, Cersei chooses, in what could be her last meal on earth, to enjoy the finest food available while shit-talking on every guest in the room she reluctantly invited. She also informs gentle Sansa (who up until now doesn't drink wine and the worst thing she's done is steal a strawberry pie from the kitchens) that she'll probably be raped in a few hours and her only other option is to have Ser Illyn Payne kill her first. Sansa duly downs her wine to join Cersei in cynical shwasty-face land.

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